I just thought this was interesting that the use of cell phones is now connected to the disappearance of honeybees. I know many people who claim they can't live without their cell phones and are constantly texting back and forth, but now I have a reason to tell them to stop. :P

Wasps are evil. There's one species that will land on cockroaches, insert a stinger into its nerve centres at a specific area then control the cockroach back to its nest for the teeny evil wasps to grow in and feed on.

There have been these giant bees around my town for the past two years. Their thoraxes are the size of my pinky finger. Friggin scary. Also, when we moved into our current apartment, we found a wasp nest in the air conditioning unit to our bedroom. Safe to say we didn't turn that sucker on before my landlord was called over here to deal with it. Screw wasps and bees.

At 5/30/2010 6:32:37 PM, Vi_Veri wrote:There have been these giant bees around my town for the past two years. Their thoraxes are the size of my pinky finger. Friggin scary. Also, when we moved into our current apartment, we found a wasp nest in the air conditioning unit to our bedroom. Safe to say we didn't turn that sucker on before my landlord was called over here to deal with it. Screw wasps and bees.

I see wasps and bees all the damn time.

Hm, really? I've had the exact opposite experience; there are barely any bees or wasps around. I mean, I had a big bumblebee sneak into my room somehow a couple weeks ago, and one was bugging one of the Mormon missionaries, but that's it.

At 5/30/2010 6:45:50 PM, Volkov wrote:Hm, really? I've had the exact opposite experience; there are barely any bees or wasps around. I mean, I had a big bumblebee sneak into my room somehow a couple weeks ago, and one was bugging one of the Mormon missionaries, but that's it.

At 5/30/2010 9:23:44 PM, belle wrote:hey... if i am lucky i will live my whole life without ever being stung by a bee and/or wasp. if they die out, that will be a lot more likely...

They're rather important for agriculture.

hush i am trying to be obnoxiously narrowminded.

what kind of agriculture requires honeybees anyways? i thought they only fertilized flowers...

Lots and lots of food plants flower, especially fruits and nuts (note that fruits have a biological definition that is broader than the culinary definitions.) Proteins, vitamins, and deliciousness. We won't starve even if bees go extinct, but our diets will be significantly less healthy and less deliciously variegated (especially for the type of vegetarian that uses nuts as a significant source of protein), they'll have to switch to beans (and peanuts, which are essentially beans in all but name). Not soybeans, those are pollinated by bees, although only with a "modest" impact.

Of course, this could be somewhat mitigated by the development of artificial alternatives, but it would be expensive or it would have been done already, by the same reasoning I tell people who advocate getting off oil to STFU.

"Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops." - http://en.wikipedia.org...

Apparently wasps are necessary -_-.

What we need to do is douse the entire world with wasp killing pesticide. The ozone layer can f* itself, this is necessary.

Or we can get the CIA to arm the sh*t out of the bees. like in Afghanistan '88.